


Five O’Clock World (or: “Nothing Says ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ Like Basketball”)

by blown_transistor



Series: Holiday Parties [3]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 14:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12191604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blown_transistor/pseuds/blown_transistor
Summary: Barba misses an important dinner...and finally takes a half-day off work. #HarvardVsYale





	Five O’Clock World (or: “Nothing Says ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ Like Basketball”)

**Author's Note:**

> Playlist for this part -- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgjKHy4ofeA-2ve7K1xM6uihF1tK3VeC
> 
> I'm planning on this story having three more parts. When these parts will happen is anyone's guess. But I'll do my best.

 

__   
_ ‘Cause it’s a five o’clock world when the whistle blows _ __   
_ No-one owns a piece of my time _ __   
_ And there’s a long-haired girl who waits, I know _ _   
_ __ To ease my troubled mind, yeah!

_ In the shelter of her arms everything’s okay _ __   
_ She talks and the world goes slipping away _ __   
_ And I know the reason I can still go on _ __   
_ When every other reason is gone... _ __   
  


 

**February 6th, 2017**

 

“ _ What do your plans for next weekend look like? _ ”

“ _ Cloudy and windy with a 100% chance of paperwork. Why? _ ” Sometimes being early for work had its perks, like being able to respond to texts from the source of his recent social life. 

“ _ I’ll tell you over lunch if you happen to be free. A certain raise has hit my paycheck, so it’s on me. I’ve got a proposal and good news, so you’ve got nothing to lose. _ ”

Rafael Barba sighed in a rapidly filling courtroom. “ _ Lunch isn’t good for me today. How about dinner on me? _ ”

“ _ Done. That Greek place we went to two weeks ago? Say...seven? _ ”

 

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

 

_ Well he never said he  _ wouldn’t _ be here at seven,  _ Liz offered silently at 7:25 that evening as she sat by herself at the restaurant she’d mentioned over text. She drummed her fingers on the table and looked down into her second overpriced European beer.  _ He’s not coming _ . Glancing into the cocktail menu, she mentally calculated the cost of her drink, tax, and tip. She reached into her almost-paid-off Hermès bag and dropped enough cash on the table to cover all of the aforementioned costs. With her belongings in tow, she exited the restaurant and headed for the subway entrance around the corner. 

 

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

 

“ _ Liz, I’m sorry. I got called to the precinct at the last minute. I’m on my way. _ ”

“ _ I’m here. Where are you? _ ”

“ _ They said a woman matching your description left ten minutes ago. I’m so sorry… _ ”

“ _ I’m coming over. _ ”

 

Rafael stopped at the top of the stairs, mere steps away from Elizabeth’s apartment door to catch his breath. He checked his phone again. None of the messages he’d sent her had been read. He owed her an apology… And nearly tripped backwards over his own feet when the door opened before he could even knock. 

“You must be Liz’s…”

Pushing the blonde out of the way, Liz stepped into the doorway and waved him inside. “Rafael, meet Sarah. Sarah, pretend like we’re back in that dorm room and…”

“Put my headphones in until you tell me not to?” She threw up a mock salute, stretching her vintage-inspired Led Zeppelin tee-shirt. “Same signal?”

She rolled her eyes and waved her roommate away. “Of course.” Ushering Rafael into her bedroom, she shut the door. “‘Nowhere Man’.”

“Beatles’ song from… ‘Rubber Soul’?”

“The rescue signal. We’ve been using that since freshman year.”

“Well, let’s hope you don’t need that.” He set his briefcase down on the floor and draped his overcoat and suit jacket over her desk chair. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth.”

“Are we back to formalities?”

“I don’t know. I was late, and I’m sure you were embarrassed sitting there by yourself. I-I’m sorry.”

“I would have stayed, but I…”

He kicked his shoes off and put a pillow between his back and the headboard of her bed. Leaning back, he closed his eyes and gestured for her to come to his side. He hummed contentedly when he felt both her right cheek and left palm rest on his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

Liz let her hand trail down to his loosened tie. The fabric glided between her fingers. “So do you hike halfway across Manhattan and up a million flights of stairs for every woman you stand up, or…”

“It should have a celebratory dinner, but I ruined it.” Sliding his hand up under the back of her shirt, Rafael began gently kneading her lower back. He smiled when she let out a pleasured sigh.

“I want to be mad at you, but it’s impossible.” She practically went limp against him at his ministrations. “Especially if you keep doing that.”

“You said in your text that you had a proposal and good news. You wanted to celebrate and offer terms of some sort. I couldn’t let that go unmarked.” He laughed when her response was merely an unintelligible mumble. “One more time?”

Reluctantly extracting herself from the relaxing embrace, she stretched and popped her back. “My brother bought a pair of tickets for the Yale-Harvard basketball game for my birthday. He was going to go with me, but something’s come up on his end. So I’m looking for a plus-one. A friend is lending me her condo for the weekend and everything.”

“Is this the good news or the proposal?”

“The proposal.”

“And the good news is that you give me fifty dollars when Harvard wins?”

Liz propped herself up on her elbow and swatted his hand away. “The good news is that I’m training my replacement at my brother’s bar. I’ll be done there by Easter, but if it’s a bet you want… You’re on.”

* * *

“I’ll call you if we get anything else,” Liv stated through a frustrated sigh.

“Text,” Rafael countered, passing behind her to turn off his office lights.

“Since when did you take a suitcase to the office, Barba?” she inquired at the sight of her colleague picking up actual luggage from the other side of the sofa. 

“I’m going to Connecticut for the weekend, and my…” He paused.  _ Shit _ . He hadn’t told Olivia about Liz. “...friend is picking me up from here. Walk me out?”

“Your ‘friend’?”

He shrugged as he shut and locked the door behind him. “It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you one day if I can ever get you out for a drink.” When she started to protest, he smiled and waved her away. “I’ll pay Lucy’s fee for a night. It’s been too long…”

The lieutenant nodded her agreement and walked silently by his side until they exited the building. She opened her mouth to say something until a horn began honking from the street.

Liz cranked down her driver’s side window and stuck her hand out to wave from her questionably legal parking place. “Rafael!”

Olivia Benson lost it and began laughing her ass off the moment she realized her friend and colleague’s “friend” was trying to attract his attention from an early 1990’s white Ford Bronco. “‘If the glove fits, you must acquit’, right?”

“Easy there, Johnny Cochran.” He rolled his eyes. “I rescind my offer to pay Lucy’s services for a night.”

She squinted at the woman surely half her colleague’s age. “Wait, was she even  _ alive _ for the Bronco chase?”

He shot Liv a sideways leer. “ _ You _ ’re buying  _ me _ drinks now.” When she jumped out of the car and headed for the back, Rafael smiled at the array of liberal-themed stickers on the black glass in a way that would make Olivia look as well. 

Liz pressed a chaste kiss to Rafael’s cheek before moving the spare tire apparatus and opening the back hatch. She made awkward eye contact with the strange woman that was closer to his age than hers while he put his luggage into the back of the car that was old enough to buy itself a beer. “Elizabeth Applegate,” she began, extending a hand to the older woman. 

“Olivia Benson.” Shaking the driver’s hand, she smiled skeptically. 

The younger woman smirked. “So  _ you’re _ that disembodied voice that’s ruined date night at least twice,” she countered.

The older woman opened her mouth and shut it again just as quickly. The witty comeback died on her lips. “I apologize for any interruptions to  _ date night _ that I may have caused,” she offered with a sideways glance to Barba. “Your plans this weekend are safe, as I’ve been instructed to text only. And if it can wait until Monday, I’ll save it.”

He silently nodded his thanks as his colleague climbed into a cab. “See you Monday, Liv,” he called. 

Liz shut the back, climbed back into the driver’s seat, and started the car. “Wasn’t expecting to meet your work wife today. I’m sure she didn’t expect to meet me. I just hope you don’t get too much shit Monday on my account.”

“She wouldn’t do that, not about you,” he admitted as the heater kicked in and she pulled away from the curb. “Honestly, she’s probably more surprised that I took time off. I haven’t left early on a Friday...ever. That, and she definitely made a comment about your car here.”

“Those jokes I’m honestly immune to. My dad bought this behemoth just a few weeks before it kind of became infamous.” Connecting her phone to the stereo through a series of wires at the next stoplight, she playfully elbowed him. “Good to know all it takes to get you out of the office at three in the afternoon is a good rivalry game.”

“Same for you getting out of the bank.”

“Are you kidding? I’d let the inmates run the asylum any day.” She let out a snort of laughter as she merged onto FDR Drive. Once he’d lost himself in his phone a moment later, she let her right hand slip from the steering wheel by the column shifter and fall to the console between the seats. She laughed again when clearly the sensation of her right pinky finger curling around his left one jarred him from his riveting emails. “I know you won’t be on my side of things for the main event of the weekend, but thank you for coming with me.”

“Like I’d turn down a fifty dollar bet.”

“What about a weekend away with gas and a place to stay paid for?”

“In your company? Never.” Rafael quickly pressed a kiss to her pinky knuckle before releasing her hand so she could better execute her next few traffic maneuvers. “In case you haven’t noticed, I rather like being with you. And now I have you to myself for the whole weekend.”

 

About a half-hour into their drive, the peace of Liz’s “Malt Shop Mayhem” Spotify station was shattered by the theme song to  _ The West Wing _ interrupting Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely” as it poured through the two-decade old car speakers. She swatted at him when he snorted because the ringtone scared her. “It’s my sister-in-law.”

“Ignore it if you want. You’re on vacation.”

“And it won’t be much of a vacation if I do. Stephanie will keep calling until I answer.” Liz inhaled deeply and swiped across the screen of her phone. “Hey, Steph.”

“ _ I tried the bank, but they said you were gone for the weekend already? _ ”

“Y-Yeah. Lucas bought me those Harvard-Yale basketball tickets. The game’s this weekend. I’m actually on my way to Connecticut right now, so I can’t pick anyone up from dayca…”

“ _ For once, that’s not why I was calling. _ ”

“Okay, well… You’re on speakerphone, and I’m not alone in the car.”

“ _ Okay, well… I don’t really care. Because you’re going to be an aunt for a third time! _ ”

Liz and Rafael both visibly winced when her words became so high pitched that by all rights only dogs should be able to hear them. 

“That’s wonderful, hon! Do you know what you’re having, or is it still too early?”

“ _ We’re keeping this one as a surprise! I’ve got a few nursery color schemes I’d love to run past you. _ ”

“Can we talk about it next week, maybe after you’ve run it past your sister? I hate to cut this short, but this isn’t the best time for me…”

“ _ You’re on the way to Connecticut, of course. Nine weeks and pregnancy brain has already set in. Might you be free for coffee Tuesday? _ ”

“It’s a date!” She shuddered after hanging up the call.

“Are you okay?”

“I honestly think that neither my brother nor his wife know how to use a condom. This is gonna be their third kid in five years. I have actually Googled whether or not it’s possible to get one’s tubes tied on a lunch break.”

“Got it. So no kids for you.”

“I haven’t ruled them out necessarily. I’ve just never felt the urge to make my own race of people, as Jerry Seinfeld put it. There’s enough kids that could use a good home without me making more. At the same time, I’ve learned to never say never.” She took her eyes off the road just long enough to grab her coffee from the slightly grimy cupholder. “After all, I went to college to take on the banks...and now I work for one.”

“‘Man plans, and God laughs’,” Rafael quoted. 

“Something like that. Speaking of plans… I trust you brought your cash for when Yale wins.”

“ _ If _ your side manages to squeak out a win, I’ll use an ATM. I trust you have those up there.”

“Of course we have them! I’m just surprised that anyone from Harvard knows what they are.”

“This is going to be a long weekend,” he lamented with a wink.

“I’m sure you’re gonna hate every minute of it.”

 

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

 

Having made it through the drive, dinner out, and a trip to Whole Foods, the pair finally made it to the borrowed condo. A bottle of wine was opened...

 

After a few moments in Rafael’s arms some time later, she began staring off at the far wall of the bedroom of her friend’s borrowed condo. Serena’s investment in the condo was definitely a good one. Maybe with enough saving after her raise, she could afford her own shoebox on Manhattan. Or maybe one day, the human space heater she was currently using for a body pillow would ask her to move into medium-sized packing crate. But that would require actual commitment beyond next week, something she was sure was off the table despite her own feelings for him...

“What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing,” she dismissed, snuggling so that her forehead touched the side of his neck and her lips could touch his collarbone. 

“I can  _ feel _ the wheels in your head turning, Elizabeth.” He grinned when she raised her head and looked down at him with a cocked eyebrow. “And I can see your expression in the reflection from the television.”

“I was just thinking.” She kissed the side of his neck in an effort to change the subject. “I thought you liked a woman with a brain.”

Sliding down, he rolled onto his side to face her. Rafael gently touched her cheek. “I do, and I always will. But there’s ‘thinking’ and then there’s the ‘ _ thinking _ ’ you were just doing. Something’s bothering you.”

“There’s no way to say it without sounding…”

“I don’t care how it sounds,” he interrupted, squeezing her hand. “If it’s weighing on your mind, I want to know.”

“You don’t wear your heart on your sleeve,” she began, looking almost anywhere but into his eyes “but I always seem to know how you feel about something. I really like that about you. I know how you feel about a good many things, but there’s one major subject that I can’t seem to get a read on from you.” She reached over and grabbed her wine glass from the nightstand and took a drink.

“Why haven’t you come out and asked me? It’s not like you have a filter.”

“It’s different when the subject is  _ me _ ,” Liz admitted in an uncharacteristically insecure whisper. “You tell your mother that I’m a smart, graceful Yale grad that works two jobs. Unless my Spanish is rustier than I thought, you didn’t have much else to say. Your work wife is...making jokes. I know I said I’m immune, but...”

“Is there something you want me to say?”

“Yes? No? I...I don’t know. I enjoy spending time with you. You’re pretty fucking awesome. The sex is fantastic.” She rubbed her eyes tiredly and sighed. “I’ve developed feelings for you, Rafael. I care about you and what you think.”

“Elizabeth,” he started, sliding a hand up over her collarbone and neck so that it rested on her cheek. “What’s this about?”

“I just want to where you stand on the subject of me...and us.”

“I don’t quite know where to begin with you,” he began after a moment. “I do know that you’re one of the few truly good things that’s ever come out of me being an asshole to someone that didn’t deserve it. You’re the strangest person I’ve ever met, and I mean that in the best way possible.” Rafael let out a soft laugh. “You’re smart, ambitious, opinionated, and a walking art gallery. You’re an old soul that keeps me on my toes.”

“And us?” Liz whispered cautiously. Biting the inside corner of her lip, she laced her fingers together with his. 

“By your side.” He paused and backed away slightly. “You didn’t bring me all the way up here to let me down gently, did you?”

“Of course not. I couldn’t let you lose the ball game and me on the same weekend.”

“So that’s how it’s gonna be.” He yanked his hand free of hers and made a move toward the sensitive spot by her left hip. “So when Harvard wins, you’ll dump me?”

She smacked him playfully and squirmed away from her tickling attacker. “Unwarranted tickling is a dump-worthy offense, after all.”

“But you won’t.”

She shrugged and settled back into her previous place at his side. “No, I won’t,” she admitted over an exaggerated sigh. “You may be a giant horse’s ass from time to time, but your heart is in the right place at the end of the day. And you put up with my ‘ambitious, opinionated’ ass.”

“So who’s the lucky party, me or you?”

“I honestly don’t know. On the one hand, you get your very own art gallery. On the other hand, your building has an elevator and a lack of roommates.”

“I feel very used.”

“Oh good. My evil plan is working,” Liz sassed. The comment earned her a pinch on the ass from Rafael. “My first thought when you threw your driver’s license at me was ‘This guy probably has an elevator and lives alone...so I should probably totally get on that even though he was rude as shit’.”

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he wrapped his arms a little tighter around her. “It is good, because it means that my plan to get a beautiful woman I’d never seen before to notice me by throwing half of my wallet at her worked.”

“Nothing says ‘boyfriend material’ like projectiles.”

“Flowers are overrated.”

 

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

 

“Should I call Barba?” Carisi asked, dropping the file on the table in front of him the next night. 

Olivia Benson shook her head. “It’s not enough for a warrant. Besides, he’s out of town for the weekend.” She pulled off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. “Let’s all go home and get back to this Monday morning.”

As the group (consisting of Fin, Amanda, the Lieutenant, and himself) dispersed, Sonny pulled up Instagram on his phone and awkwardly put on his jacket one arm at a time and walked toward the elevator. A new photo of his niece,  _ another  _ new photo of his niece, a friend from night school’s dog shaming photo, his cousin’s new car… He stopped in the middle of the hallway at the sight of the next two pictures. 

The first picture was posted by his favorite bartender and was of Barba looking out onto a basketball court in a dark sweatshirt with his arms crossed over his chest with the caption “Got the workaholic to take a weekend off. #harvardvsyale #rivalrygame #housedivided #gobulldogs”.

The second picture made his jaw drop. It, too, was posted by his favorite bartender and was a selfie of her and his colleague. She sported blue Yale attire to his crimson Harvard attire. Barba stood beside her with an arm around her waist and a cant to his hip to account for their height difference. “Harvard’s up (for now). Managed to get him to smile. #gobulldogs #harvardvsyale #notthrowingawaymyshot #heisoutfiftywhenyalewins #cmonyaleimbroke #thecouplethatrivalstogetherstaystogether #wecertainlydidntpregamethis”.

“You look like you’ve just seen your parents having sex, Carisi,” Amanda jabbed, pushing the elevator call button her colleague and friend hadn’t. 

“I… You know that bartender you met that calls me Superman?” At her nod, he handed her his phone. “The hashtags on the second one…”

The single mother examined both photos and their captions. “I didn’t know Barba was capable of smiling, but I like the idea of him being with a Yale woman. Good for both of them.” She grinned and handed his phone back. “The rivalry banter between them has to be  _ legendary _ .”

Sonny clicked when Instagram notified him that Liz had posted a third picture. This new picture, clearly using the “Lo-Fi” filter, was simply of a glass of scotch (neat) sitting next to a glass of white wine...and two twenties and a ten on a wooden bar top. “Harvard won 75-67. I’m nothing if not a woman of my word. #drinksonme #thatdidntgoasplanned #aspartofthebet #ihavetotagthis #harvardrulesyaledrools #becausethisisclearly1996again”. He passed the phone back to Rollins with a snort of laughter. “At least he’ll be in a good mood on Monday.”


End file.
